As the number of patients suffering from diabetes and similar medical conditions increases, self-monitoring of blood glucose wherein the patient monitors his or her blood glucose levels has become a common practice. Various mechanisms have been created to achieve these results, and typically include a lancet device and a blood glucose meter.
Blood glucose meters often further include a memory for storing measured blood glucose values, exercises and meals, along with other related data such as the corresponding dates, time of day, and duration of each, and the units that were used as these values and events were measured. Blood glucose meters are also generally provided with a display screen and user input buttons or controls with which a user can specify which of the stored values to display or functions to access.
A blood glucose meter can be configured to receive and read an inserted test strip on which a drop of a patient's blood has been deposited. Still other devices include an integrated lancet device and glucose meter for ease of self-monitoring. Such systems are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,398, to Garcia et al., entitled “Glucose Medical Monitoring System”, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In many devices, the lancet mechanism and the detection mechanism are separate. In doing so, the lancet device including the lancet, and the detection unit including the test strip, which are provided separately or are separately mounted on a monitoring system, result in a very complicated operation for the user.
Accordingly, a need exists for a device and method to provide a blood glucose meter with an integral lancet device, and a location on the device to store test strip vials, such that one-handed use for lancet device, meter and test strip access functions are possible.